Russia beefing up its Syria presence

Russia has started to build a runway allowing the ingress of heavy transport aircraft in the province of Latakia in Syria.

DAMASQ (QHA) -

Construction of a runway has gotten underway outside the military airport of Haimin in Laktakia, President Asad’s stronghold in Syria, reports Тиждень.ua, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, which relies on eyewitness reports of civilian, military and medical personnel in Syria.

“Russians are keeping Syrians out of the area where a runway is being built now,” eyewitnesses report. According to them, Russians are also working on expanding the airport of Al Hamidiyah located in the southern part of the province of Tartus.

In the last two weeks, Russian transport planes carrying military hardware and hundreds of military advisers, specialists and technicians have been arriving at the airport of Haimin. The eyewitnesses also state that not only has Russia not handed over control of its naval base in Tartus, as it was claimed in earlier reports, but tightened its security.

As was reported earlier by Crimean News news agency, a number of Western politicians and political analysts attribute a fresh upsurge in violence in Syria to the involvement of Russian troops. The Kremlin denies the claim saying it is only fighting terrorism. However, ever since the conflict flared up with renewed intensity, Moscow has done nothing but increase its military presence in the country while totally neglecting the problem of refugees fleeing Syria and flooding Europe.